


The CR90, Rebel Blockade Runner

by mimikutie



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Gen, Star Wars: Age of Rebellion (Tabletop RPG), basically what if Zal and the senator who explained why she wasnt getting pilot gigs were an item, fairly aromantic and sexless all things considered, i guess there is no age of rebellion tag... its quiet here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27750916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mimikutie/pseuds/mimikutie
Summary: In the midst of a crawling piloting career at Rengali Naval Academy and nothing to show for it, Zal Arthur meets the Senator of Kuat.
Relationships: Zal Artha/Original Nonplayer Character
Kudos: 1





	The CR90, Rebel Blockade Runner

**Author's Note:**

> A story for my gm. Me and my friends are new to the game so most of us picked from the Age of Rebellion premade character folios and I just fell in love with Zal. Is she objectively not a very strong character? Yes, but she does rock your shit when it comes to flying so. 
> 
> Also apparently the age of rebellion ttrpg tag just, does not exist? Howdy all.
> 
> Shout out our gm, who does a wonderful job! ♡

It took a moment to find the right place to hang her brother’s lucky charm. Zal couldn’t attest to being the most familiar with the inside of a CR90 Corvette, it was a slight change from the typical civil escort shuttles. A Corvette was a little harder to come by, but it was at least a bit easier on the eyes.

She hung the little glass carp over the ignition and went about refamiliarizing herself with the cockpit and deck before the senator arrived. She was starting to take a liking to it. It was an unusual choice of vehicle for a senator and her family. She had even been told that it was something of a rebel favorite and in some places, they got regularly searched by imperial patrols. Maybe rumors of civil unrest had encouraged the senator to consider it a necessary inconvenience if it meant avoiding trouble from rebel pirates who seemed to be popping up all the time. A kind of backwards stealth move, she’d heard of stuff like that. She hoped it was a trend that continued, if it meant she would get to see new starships like this more often.

She wasn’t worried about anyone giving her much trouble anyways, she expected that the presence of the Kuati leader would resolve them where they appeared.

Kuat’s inner world was idyllic, flocked in rolling fields of grass and watered by long rivers that were bordered by banks of wildflowers. Her siblings would have loved it, she thought. She blew an exasperated breath through her nose and stayed her hand on the hull of the Corvette. It didn’t look like the kind of place you left once you made a home there.

“Pilot Zal.” She broke her gaze from the endless horizon and turned it on the approaching figure.

Senator Camellia was leaning slightly on a heavy old bough, stripped of bark and polished to a dull shine. She wore simple robes of dusty pink and sturdy, well-shined shoes. Her hair was cut close to her head and undecorated. Zal raised an eyebrow at her; she appeared to have come alone.

“Senator. Yes, I’m your escort today.” She pulled the sleeve of her flight suit to show the Rengali Academy’s symbol without passion.

“Excellent. I’ve heard very good word about you.” Camellia smiled appreciatively at her and the ship, and it took a measure of Zal’s patience not to roll her eyes.

“Is there any company with you today, Senator?” She tried to sound polite but didn’t keep the pointed implication out of her tone. She didn’t like the thought of assisting some airheaded noble with any unofficial excursions.

“I managed to get some alone time today, thankfully.” She nodded definitively at her own words, as if she had given them full approval, and began a graceful ascent of the docking ramp without waiting for a response.

Zal grit her teeth at her back but followed close behind. There was no room to argue, it seemed.

* * *

The experience of flying the Corvette was more fun than a Lambda. It required tighter focus, and even it was as only as fast and it was probably too difficult to go into hyperspace with no copilot, that only made it more interesting than the shuttles.

  
It would have been more enjoyable had it not been for the senator. She was really beginning to test her nerves, insisting that she sit in the copilot seat and staring out the canopy window, taking up Zal’s precious oxygen.

  
As she had suspected, she obviously had no real destination. Only asking to stop at nearby extraplanetary stations and making lame stories about having some reason to be there. She humored the senator, if only to not hurt her pride and get her angry, but she was somewhat more eager to stay out of trouble with the senator's family and aides, who'd be missing her soon.

  
She was about to concede one point in the senator’s favor: she hadn’t attempted any conversation thus far, when she began to speak.

  
“It must be exciting to get to do this all the time, go to faraway places and whatnot.”

  
_Faraway places? We’re barely out of your backyard._

  
“It’s alright. Not nearly as exciting as you make it out.”

  
“Oh? I’m surprised. The view is wonderful, at least.”

  
“It could be better.” Zal growled quietly, she was beginning to lose patience. “When do you think you need to be back by?” Zal said it as politely as she could but the look she gave dared her to get offended.

  
She did not. Instead she seemed to look for something else to comment on out the canopy and drew in a hissing breath.

  
“Oh no,” the senator whispered. Zal slowed the Corvette instinctively and declined to follow the senator’s gaze.

  
The hailing message came swiftly and without airs. “Halt and state your identity and purpose of travel, this is a monitored area.”

  
Camellia stammered for an answer and Zal ignored her. “I’m Zal Artha, a Rengali Pilot, escorting Senator Camellia from Kuat.”

  
“I said state your _purpose_ of travel.”

  
Zal looked at the Senator. She looked a little afraid, but mostly ashamed, her eyes wandering between the many stars outside as if she could silently plead with them for their help. When she met Zal’s accusatory stare she looked genuinely sorry. Zal sighed.

  
“She only wanted to meet some family members, as I’m aware they had some business on the outer world of Kuat and they’ve sent us for a pickup of basic supplies and factory equipment since we were already out. They gave me their complete trust and authority, though I’m afraid they didn’t give me the proper channels to inform you ahead of time. Sorry.”

  
Camellia nodded slowly, as if she could give Zal’s words her blessing despite the comms' lack of visuals.

  
“If the senator is with you, we’d like this confirmed by her.”

  
“S-She is.” Camellia broke in, giving Zal a look that asked belated permission.

  
“Is all that was stated by the pilot true?”

  
“Yes. Forgive us, I didn’t realize we were travelling in such an area, it was entirely my mistake.” She looked at Zal with purpose as she said so.

  
There was a pause that Zal was not expecting, but just as she was beginning to remarshal her thoughts into a new lie the comms buzzed again.

  
“Stand by, we’re going to board and make routine inspection. Over and out.”

  
She blinked when the comms clicked into silence. She hadn’t been expecting that answer. 

  
_Inspect us for what?_

  
Zal looked up, expecting to have to calm the Senator, but in between her last fearful glance and that moment she seemed to have become someone else. She looked as untroubled as if the conversation hadn’t even taken place. Zal had to admire her steadiness, if nothing else. She got up to prepare the sudden docking.

* * *

Most pilots would probably have been glad to see that their fellow students were the ones pulling them over, maybe they could have had a chance in the stars to get off easily. Everything in the galaxy had to be harder for Zal, it seemed. 

  
As soon as she saw the Rengali symbol she began to put the pieces together, and the whole picture it formed was not good. She didn’t recognize him exactly, but she knew she’d seen his face somewhere. One of the higher ranked pilots who was making steady progress upwards, while she’d struggled for the chance to make any progress at all.

  
“Greetings, officer.” Guess this is where he must have ended up. For his own sake she hoped it was better than what she’d been saddled with.

  
He eyed her with an unsurprising suspicion. “Artha. And the Senator?”

  
“Right here.” Camellia stepped into view with all her owed regality, brow hard with impatience. “Care to explain what this is about?”

  
The officer seemed to back down an inch. “I apologize for any inconvenience. We’re asked to check over any CR90 ships going through this area. It’s a somewhat new development. We’re just here to make sure nothing’s out of place, that’s all.”

  
He didn’t make any further explanation, instead opening emergency supply cabinets and making rudimentary passes over crash landing gear. Zal could feel him glance at her occasionally, as well as the Senator wordlessly asking her for an explanation, she didn’t make any response and instead waited for the ordeal to be over.

  
Once he’d moved on to the cockpit, he stopped in his lax search at the ignition. Zal’s shoulders tensed. He turned with the little aluminum cord strung through the glass fish in his hand.

  
“What’s this?”

  
“Just a charm.” Zal said quietly.

  
“From Chandrila?” He turned it over and over like a hound dislodging the roots and dirt at some small thing’s burrow.

  
“Yes. Just a trinket.” 

  
“What’s Chandrila like?” he didn’t raise his eyes and one might think he was only politely curious.

  
“Fine, nothing special. They just make little things like that.”

  
“They make more than just that, I hear.” He feigned his calm, but his eye was cool. “Where did you come into a CR90, anyways? Are there a lot on Chandrila?”

  
Zal watched the metal cord wind in his fingers. She was about to explain that it wasn’t hers but remembered the Senator there and mentally grasped for something else.

  
“It’s mine.” Camellia said stormily. Zal looked up abruptly only just in time to see her stamp past and yank the bead from his hands. "So is this.” Zal's face bunched with hurt for a moment, despite herself, as if she'd been struck by something. 

  
She thrust a finger in his face. “So is everything on this ship so long as I am onboard. You have seen enough, and this pilot is with me. Anything further, you can take up with my administration formally, on Kuat.” Zal blinked herself into order again.

  
“I’m performing my duties-"

  
“ _performing_ indeed, you are dismissed.”

  
He slunk out of reach of her tight-fisted hand and gaped for a moment. “Yes, Senator. I am sorry to have offended.” He stalked to the open doorway out of the cockpit and once he’d made some distance, he squared his shoulders again. “I cannot promise that you won’t be hearing from someone about this, though.”

  
The Senator nodded, and he led himself out.

  
“You’re out of your mind.” Zal returned the charm to its place, having replaced the docking gear.

  
“Sorry about that.” Camellia’s face darkened with embarrassment, the light coming off the front window made her weary face glow with starlight.

  
Zal studied her quietly. “Usually someone else is saying that to me. So, I’m glad someone else gets to hear it this time.”

  
Camellia smiled with gratitude. “Could you take me home, I’m afraid I have some explanations to give.”

  
“Only if you promise to see me again.”

* * *

  
She only needed one bag, which she tossed hurriedly into the training lambda, one she was sure no one would miss right away. She wrapped the aluminum cord of her brother’s charm over the ignition.

  
She had a pounding headache, and maybe on another, better night of sleep she wouldn’t be doing this at all. She went back outside, one last chance for a breath of air.

  
A little way across the naval landing strip a solitary figure was walking towards her across the Rengali landing strip and Zal froze like an animal. She was slowly forming some excuse behind her sluggish tongue when the rising suns lit them from behind. She recognized her with dawning horror.

  
“You’re leaving.” It wasn’t a question thankfully, Zal’s capacity for words had ended. “I’d heard that you hadn’t been doing any of your assignments. You didn’t show up last time. I could tell.”

  
Camellia examined her face, and Zal hated how confused and anguished she looked. “I only meant to help you understand why you weren’t being promoted, not to drive you away.” Camellia said plaintively.

  
“You didn’t.” Zal finally managed to speak, she couldn’t stand her to look so misused.

  
“Then why are you leaving? Where are you going? I don’t understand.”

  
“I can’t stay here. There’s no point- and it’s not that I’m not getting anywhere in my career! not completely…” Zal tried to test Camellia’s face for understanding but there was none. “It’s like… Remember the first time we met, and you kept staring out the window? Didn’t you wish you could go to other places? See other things?”

  
“Yes! Of course!” She looked angry, her confusion souring to frustration. “But I _also_ knew that I had responsibilities to others. I wasn’t planning on running away.”

  
“You wanted to.” She didn’t mean to say it like an accusation.

  
“I _didn’t_.” 

  
The two were stuck for a moment, Zal at the top of the ramp and Camellia at the bottom, probably expecting her to come to her senses. She was running out of time before someone would notice.

  
“What I mean is, if I don’t do something now, this is where my life ends. This is all it amounts to!”

  
“You mean that _I’m_ all that it amounts to.” She was quiet, seething and hurt.

  
“No! I mean that I’m doing this for both of us.” It sounded lame and Zal knew it. “I mean that if I don’t prove myself to someone, both of us will be stuck like this forever. It’s not safe for you to go, but I can.”

  
“Don’t go. I’ll find a way! I’ll pull some strings.”

  
“It’s not going to be enough.”

  
“Tell me where you’re going. That’s an order.”

  
Zal slid her hand inside the open airlock door. “I need to help the rebellion. I’ll be back. Soon.” Zal shut the airlock door and ran for the pilot’s chair. She was a fast start, always had been.

  
She heard a cry of outrage from outside and even felt something small, probably one of Camellia’s sturdy hiking boots, bounce off the hull. The impact was so trivial as to only be dimly heard over the roar of the engines, but Zal felt the hurt anyways.

**Author's Note:**

> The romance here turned out to be fairly sexless here, but ah c'est la vie. Thank you for reading!
> 
> Does anyone else play age of rebellion? lmk.
> 
> edited for spelling errors. I'll probably revisit it eventually and touch things up again.


End file.
